| History of Yoga |
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Yoga originated approximately about four to eight thousand years ago. The first people to practice Yoga are Indus Valley civilizations. Yoga has been found in the Hindu, Buddhists, and Jain philosophies and it is still popular today. Many scholars have found that Yoga may have began well be the Indus Valley civilizations. In fact it is thought that it actually dates back to eight thousand years. Some carvings found have dated back to at least five thousand years. One carving of a yogi seating in a traditional cross legged pose with hands resting on knees was discovered in the Indus Valley civilizations. Yoga can be traced back to Rig Veda the oldest Hindu text which talks about linking your mind and the insight to the Sun of Truth. The ideas of uniting mind, body, and souls were the original uses of Yoga. Though today many people only use Yoga as physical exercise. Yoga was created to unite your mind, body, and spirit. Though it is thought that at one time Yoga was community oriented not just about healing ones self. This dates back to the Stone Age where they practiced shamanism. Both have similar characteristics in the teaching of healing the body. There are many different characteristics of Yoga that have slowly been added to the original practice. During four different time periods new ideas, of how to achieve the most out of the art, were added to Yoga. The Vedic period is where the so called sacred scripture of Brahmanism was added. This is a collection of hymns for divine praise for a higher power. These are usually done during a ceremony or ritual to help surpass the minds limitations. The pre-classical period is where 200 scriptures are about inner vision when devoted to the Brahman (means “god’). This is the practice where you are seen to be your own god. This is also the same time period where Buddha started teaching Buddhism that stresses meditation. The classical period is when the Yoga-sutra was introduced. This was sometime during the second century. This was thought to help standardize the classical Yoga. This was also the time period where it was tried to use Yoga to turn the body and make it immortal. The post classical period is more focused on the now. It teaches that one should strive to accept reality and live with the moment. |
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